Who are the job creators’?

I watched Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All” documentary the other day, and while it’s a pretty good primer for those new to the subject, I didn’t hear much that I hadn’t heard before.

There was one line that stuck with me, though, and it didn’t come from Reich, but from Nick Hanauer. Hanauer is a Seattle-based venture capitalist (one of the first investors in Amazon), who also runs his family business – the largest down pillow factory in the country. He was explaining one corollary to rising levels of income inequality: When middle class wages are stagnant, their purchases cannot drive economic growth. During recessions, he noted, Americans don’t buy new pillows, and the pillow factory owner doesn’t hire more workers.

Playing on the conservatives’ reverence for entrepreneurs like him, Hanauer put it differently: “We aren’t the job creators,” he said. “Our customers are the job creators.”

Makes you wonder why people who worship markets seem so oblivious to whether customers have the resources they need to shop.

Rick Holmes

I watched Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All” documentary the other day, and while it’s a pretty good primer for those new to the subject, I didn’t hear much that I hadn’t heard before.

There was one line that stuck with me, though, and it didn’t come from Reich, but from Nick Hanauer. Hanauer is a Seattle-based venture capitalist (one of the first investors in Amazon), who also runs his family business – the largest down pillow factory in the country. He was explaining one corollary to rising levels of income inequality: When middle class wages are stagnant, their purchases cannot drive economic growth. During recessions, he noted, Americans don’t buy new pillows, and the pillow factory owner doesn’t hire more workers.

Playing on the conservatives’ reverence for entrepreneurs like him, Hanauer put it differently: “We aren’t the job creators,” he said. “Our customers are the job creators.”

Makes you wonder why people who worship markets seem so oblivious to whether customers have the resources they need to shop.

Market Place

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